Boeing makes a 'best and final offer' to striking union workers

abcnews.go.com:

Boeing is making what it calls a «best and final offer” to striking union machinists

Boeing said Monday it made a “best and final offer” to striking union machinists that includes bigger raises and larger bonuses than a proposed contract that was overwhelmingly rejected.

The company said the offer includes pay raises of 30% over four years, up from the rejected 25% raises.

The new offer — and labeling it a final one — demonstrates Boeing’s eagerness to end the strike by about 33,000 machinists that began Sept. 13. The company introduced rolling furloughs of non-unionized employees last week to cut costs during the strike.

The strikers face their own financial pressure to return to work. They received their final paychecks last week and will lose company-provided health insurance at the end of the month, according to Boeing.

The company said its new offer is contingent on members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers ratifying the contract by late Friday night, when the strike will be a little over two weeks old.

The union, which represents factory workers who assemble some of the company’s best-selling planes, said it was reviewing the offer.

“Employees knew Boeing executives could do better, and this shows the workers were right all along,» Brian Bryant, the union’s international president, said in a statement. «The proposal will be analyzed to see if it’s up to the task of helping workers gain adequate ground on prior sacrifices,”

Boeing's latest offer includes upfront pay raises of 12% plus three annual raises of 6% each.

It would double the size of ratification bonuses to $6,000. It also would keep annual bonuses based on productivity. In the rejected contract, Boeing sought to